My sister's ex smokes. A lot. He's tried to quit, but it hasn't stuck. His lung has partially collapsed several times. While he was here, his lung FULLY collapsed. My sister had to call my mom and drag him to the hospital. He ended up having to go in the special unit and he needed surgery immediately. It was a miracle he lived.

The doctor of course told him he needed to stop smoking. It was directly contributing to his lung collapsing.

So what does he do?

Keeps smoking.

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"And neither the angels in heaven above, nor the demons down under the sea can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee"

I could go into the time my brother insisted on driving himself to the hospital after he sliced open his hand with a bandsaw but since he did in the end agree to go to the hospital on his own...

Several years ago my father had his wisdom teeth out. The dentist prescribed him a strong painkiller and an anti inflammatory which he was supposed to take for a week to ten days after the surgery. On day two my father in his infinite wisdom decided that he could discontinue the anti-inflammatory and just take the painkillers.

On day five at my birthday lunch he collapsed in the middle of the main course and had to be carted out of the restaurant and into an ambulance. My brother has pictures of me standing beside the ambulance wearing my 'best birthday smile' as they load my father in - missing; the one where I saw him with the camera and smacked him upside the head.

They gave him a few tests, put him back on his anti-inflammatories and sent him home. All in all a very memorable birthday and a valuable lesson on how doctors prescribe drugs for a reason...

I know one guy that drove himself to the ER after slicing his hand open too. He was slicing lemons for the lemonade at Chick-fil-A, and the knife slipped. I don't know why he decided to drive himself, but at least all that lemon juice had to be burning out any germs...and this is how I really do know that they really do make the lemonade from scratch

on a slightly amusing side note, when DH sprained his ankle (the time he spent 3 months on crutches for it), he was initially questioning whether or not he needed to see the doctor...we left for the ER about half an hour after the injury; when his gallbladder quick working, after he hit a gap in praying to the porcelin deities, he was ready to go as fast as I could get both of us dressed.

oh, thought of an older one. When I was dating my ex-bf, his dad used to complain of heartburn. One evening, it was pretty bad, and super early in the morning, he decided to drive himself to the ER over it. Not the close-by, 2 blocks away ER, but the bigger hospital over 30 miles & 45 minutes away. X-BF's mom got a phone call around 6am telling her they needed her to come up there and sign some paperwork so they could get started on his triple bypass.

Yeah, he drove himself almost an hour away while having a heart attack. The only good news was that since the mom worked at that hospital, she could be right there with him before and after her shifts, and during her lunch (and very nearby othertimes) without having to miss work (she did take off the day of the surgery), since he wasn't at work (construction...he was out for a long while). That, and her job was the one with the insurance that was paying for things...

The doctor of course told him he needed to stop smoking. It was directly contributing to his lung collapsing.

So what does he do?

Keeps smoking.

This sounds really familiar I really, really wish my OH would quit, but I know from personal experience (used to smoke myself) that the more people tell you to quit, the less inclined you are to do it. You have to want to. You'd think that two collapsed lungs and wanting to be there when you're son is older would be enough of an incentive though....

It sounds like your sister's ex had a tension pneumothorax where the lung collapses and the escaped air presses on the heart. So far my OH has been lucky and has only had pneumothoraxs (pneumothoraxi?). Still dangerous and incredibly painful, but not immediately life threatening.

My boyfriend gets horrible migraines and has had them for about 15-20 years. He can feel them coming on, yet won't take his meds for them until they hit him full force. About a month ago, he was laying in bed saying he felt another headache coming on. I asked if he took his meds.

He said "No, I am kinda hoping it will go away on its own."

Me: Have they EVER gone away on their own?

Him: No

Me: Then take your darn pills. That's what they're for.

Him: But they'll knock me out for about 3 hours.

Me: Well, would you rather be out for 3 hours now, or spend the next couple days w/ a migraine?

He took his pills. He's gotten much better about taking them right away now when he feels a headache coming on.

11 years ago, I attended a family reunion. At this family reunion my cousins were putting around on 4-wheelers and dirtbikes. I thought the dirtbikes looked like fun, although I had never been on a motorcycle before (other than riding with my dad as a small child).

My ex husband (who was my fiancee at the time) gave me a brief tutorial, which went in one ear and out the other. I got on the bike, gunned it, and smashed into a small evergreen tree. I hurt my left wrist badly (and wouldn't you know it, I'm left handed!).

So I wrapped it up and went home to ice it. I couldn't move my fingers or my hand the next day. I could barely do anything at work. At the time, I was a shop gopher at a farm implement dealership. I couldn't detail machinery, I couldn't help the mechanics, I couldn't even clean up the shop. All of my co-workers told me I should go get it looked at. I refused, saying "All they're going to do is put a cast on it and I'll come right back to the shop and cut it off. It will be a waste of time and money. I have it immobilized in this splint and I'll be fine."

The reason I didn't want a cast? This all happened a little under a month before my wedding and I did NOT want to have a cast during my wedding! LOL

It turned out I was fine. I have a small "bump" on my wrist now and I can't bend it as far as I can my right wrist, but it doesn't really hinder me in any way.

The doctor of course told him he needed to stop smoking. It was directly contributing to his lung collapsing.

So what does he do?

Keeps smoking.

This sounds really familiar I really, really wish my OH would quit, but I know from personal experience (used to smoke myself) that the more people tell you to quit, the less inclined you are to do it. You have to want to. You'd think that two collapsed lungs and wanting to be there when you're son is older would be enough of an incentive though....

It sounds like your sister's ex had a tension pneumothorax where the lung collapses and the escaped air presses on the heart. So far my OH has been lucky and has only had pneumothoraxs (pneumothoraxi?). Still dangerous and incredibly painful, but not immediately life threatening.

The plural is pneumothoraces. But you really don't want even one pneumothorax.

Surprisingly enough, Mr. Sirius is pretty good about going to the doctor when he needs to go. He was a hospital lab tech for 20 years, and he saw what happened when people refused to go to the hospital when they needed it, but I know that if he asks me to drive him he's sick. A few years back his left leg swelled up and turned bright red, and he called me from work and told me that he was going to urgent care on his way home because he was in pain. He ended up in the hospital on IV antibiotics, and ended up staying a couple days in the ICU when we discovered that he was allergic to sulfa (hadn't known it before). Fortunately - the only fortunate thing about the whole situation - he started having a nasty reaction while the nurse was still in the room, so she got him some help quick.

My father had an accident with a bench saw; the blade came off and flew toward him, and he threw up his arm to keep it from hitting him in the face. It sliced his arm to the bone. So did he go in the house and ask my mother to drive him to the hospital? (20 miles away on the other side of the mountain!) No, he went in the house and tore up a new bedsheet, intending to wrap it up himself.

Mom caught him and insisted on driving him to the hospital for his "little scratch"; he went into shock halfway there.

Which was a good thing, otherwise Mom would have killed him for tearing up a NEW bedsheet instead of an old one!

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~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~It's true. Money can't buy happiness. You have to turn it into books first. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Woman feels unilateral headache, has problems finding words, notices the left side of her face was drooping, and her left arm and leg refused to cooperate. She calls her coworker, and they decide she should take an Ibuprofen and sleep it off. Woman wakes up in an even worse state than when she went to sleep. Massive stroke. Too late for Actilyse treatment(don't know what that is in English).

What group are the patient and her coworkers? Medical personell. Both nurses. Should know better!

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Just because someone is offended that does not mean they are in the right.